Hyderabad: Come new academic year, schools in Telangana might not be able to charge more than Rs 3.5 lakh as annual fee, with the Telangana Education Commission (TEC) proposing a cap to stop schools “from looting parents”.
A report on this will be submitted to the state govt by the end of Jan.
“There are schools charging Rs 22 lakh per annum. This cannot be accepted. We have calculated very liberally, taking all costs into consideration, and have came up with this figure,” P L Vishweshwar Rao, a member of the commission told TOI on Friday. He said although education is non-profit field, there are schools profiteering 40% to 50% in the state, blatantly violating norms and orders of the govt.
The commission, which has been meeting stakeholders since the last week of Dec, has also proposed dividing schools into four categories based on facilities and infrastructure. Category four will be further divided into rural and urban areas. The fee structure will be decided as per the category.
The TEC is planning to propose a minimum fee of Rs 10,000 per annum for category 4 schools in rural areas and Rs 30,000 per annum for those in urban areas. “Schools will have to follow the cap, or action will be initiated by cancelling their recognition. This is needed to streamline our school education and to ensure schools will fall in line,” said Rao, adding that TEC will make scientific recommendations acceptable to govt and private schools.
The commission, which is also looking into school fee hikes, said there was no justification in hiking fees every academic year by 22% to 25%. They want the govt to cap it at 6.5% by considering the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
“The commission is of the view that parents are being cheated by the majority of managements. We can give them some relief only if we can cap the fee and hikes as well. To fix hikes, we are planning to consider CPI,” said Akunuri Murali, chairperson of the commission, adding that they are also going to stress on the need for transparency and make it mandatory for schools to display fees on their website and on notice boards.
